We live a Jetsons future of ubiquitous automation, in which the most trivial of human tasks has a machine to take the work out of it. Take doling out Halloween candy for example, why the effort of doing it by hand when a machine can take the strain? [Christian] is here to show us the way with the Halloween Candy Mosnter. It’s a cardboard monster ehad that delivers candy when you press its nose, but there’s a bit more to it than that.
Behind the scenes there’s an ESP32 running the show, with the candy dispensed by a stepper motor with a finger wheel. An IR break beam detects candy dispensing, and an array of flashing lights and sounds complete the celebration. It’s a bit of fun, but with more substance than at first meets the eye. Everything sits in a GitHub repository should you wish to take a peek.
Halloween comes but once a year, and thus we only have a few days in which to show off these hacks. Oddly this one isn’t the first dispenser of candy we have brought you.